Saturday, September 29, 2012

Last Spring, we rented a (fabulous) house in Arizona and spent a month there. A MONTH! We had never gone away for more than two weeks, and normally it's no more than 10 days. So a whole month was really new to us. We loaded up the 3 dogs, and did the three day drive to Mesa. I also took some things to do, since I wouldn't be able to do any papercrafts while away.

The Martha Stewart Loom seemed like a good idea to bring, since it comes apart and stores flat ... and while enjoying the peace & quiet I sat in the shade and loom knit a scarf. Yes, I appreciate the irony of sitting in sunny Arizona and looming something for wintery Alberta.

I used a sock weight yarn for the first time, which is 'self-striping'. Also, for the first time I slipped the first stitch on every row - and LOVE the nice finished edge you get. A keeper technique :-)

Below you can see how I set up the loom:

I managed to finish the scarf in the time I was there (ha ha, there was LOTS of quiet time) and will enjoy wearing it when the cooler weather hits here in Alberta. You can see Jasper in the top photo below.

Because of the yarn chosen, the scarf is quite light! I think I really like working with sock weight yarn, and you sure get a lot of 'bang for your buck' with a skein of that! I have lots leftover for another project.

Thursday, September 27, 2012

When our middle daughter was getting married, her soon-to-be In-Laws came to Alberta from Israel.

In February.

It's cold in Alberta in February, and there can be lots of snow. That kind of cold, and that much snow was a little daunting to the visitors. So I made "D" a scarflet, using Brenda Myers pattern and some pretty Curly Q yarn I had in my stash with the red Knifty Knitter Loom.

The yarn is thicker than ones I've made this scarflet with before, so it would be nice and warm. It was also AWFUL to loom with, as it was almost elastic. I had never met 'D' before and I didn't know what her colour preferences were. At least I had most of the colours covered with this yarn!

I had previously ordered some pretty hand-made buttons on Etsy - and guess where the artist lived? Yup - Israel. I thought that was a nice touch, and 'D' did too. :-)

The thing I love the most about this pattern, is that you can wear it turned up or rolled down like a collar. It kept her nice and cozy during her visit, and I felt good giving her something I made with my own hands.

I haven't had a chance to do any more on Ethan's blanket, but hopefully this weekend I will get some done.

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Ethan loves to have his head warm. In fact, Ethan loves to be warm. Really REALLY warm. Feet must be covered at all times, and he stopped fussing as soon as I finished stitching the top of his hat and put it on his head. Too funny.

I hadn't even added the 'tassels' to the top corners but he looked so sweet and settled in so happily, I just had to snap the picture. The wool is really soft and is such a pleasure to work with.

Here he is wearing the completed hat. :-) I have never done one of
these styles before, but they are all over the web and in boutiques so I
thought I'd give it a go. Instead of doing a drawstring cast-off, I
cast off each stitch as if I were working a flat panel. Because I had
purled the last row, that gave the top a nice edge once it was stitched
together.

I do NOT like making pom-poms, and I didn't want to add a real tassel ... so instead I crochet these pieces and stitched them onto the corners. So CUTE!

And just so you can see this little guy with his eyes open:

Now, even though I have a hectic week - I need to get going on his blanket. And a couple more hats! Miss Olivia - who has decided she will not wear hats anymore - apparently loves this hat. She will put it on when she dances. Ahahaha - my heart is full & happy.

Thanks for stopping by.

Note, at this point I am not going to move my loom knit projects from Altered Scrapbooking
over to this blog. If you are curious, look to the labels on the right
side of that blog and you can click on Loom Knitting, or Knifty Knitter
to see those projects.

Sunday, September 23, 2012

I started on Ethan's stroller blanket; I have some beautiful cream alpaca yarn here that I thought would work in nicely and give me enough yarn to finish the blanket. Only I cast on 2 pegs/skip one instead of wrapping 3 pegs and skipping one. by mistake A huge difference in the look, and after I knit 6 inches I decided I didn't like it nearly enough to continue and frogged the whole thing.

Then I started on his hat - which is going to work up really quickly. He loves LOVES LOVES to be warm and cozy - so he will probably need several hats to get him through the cooler weather. Yeah!

In the photo, the brim has been brought up to the center and knit off giving a nice, double knit brim. (Check out the various You-Tube videos to see how this technique is accomplished).

Thanks for stopping by.

Note, at this point I am not going to move my loom knit projects from Altered Scrapbooking
over to this blog. If you are curious, look to the labels on the right
side of that blog and you can click on Loom Knitting, or Knifty Knitter
to see those projects.

Friday, September 21, 2012

I finished loom knitting the hat to match the baby boy stroller blanket, and tried it on our Grandson yesterday. It fit perfectly (he is 2 months old) and was soooooo cute. I'm going to make another one this weekend, this one for Ethan.

Good thing, as I forgot to take a picture of the hat and blanket together - and hubby delivered the gift to the proud father this morning.

Our daughter also loved the stroller blanket, saying it was such a handy size and she would love one. So! I get to make another one. :-) I don't have enough of that lovely green/blue/yellow yarn left to do a blanket with the border and a hat, so I'm going to get creative.

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

If you follow my other blog (Altered Scrapbooking) you will know that my friend Sue and I pop a card or paper crafting project in the mail to each other the first of every month. This month, Sue is celebrating a birthday so I wanted to knit her something.

That something turned out to be a drop-stitch, narrow cowl with a Mobius Twist.

I didn't want the cowl to be too wide, as the sparkly mohair yarn might be too 'tickly' around the neck. This way it can hang down the front of a sweater, blouse, or even a coat. The twist allows it to hang very nicely.

Once the cowl was as long as I wanted it, I carefully twisted the cast on edge once then brought that edge back up and put each stitch back on the pegs over the last row I'd just knitted. Each of those pegs then had 2 loops. I knit over, then cast off. Once again, no sewing together - gotta love that!

I used a combination of a beautiful sparkly mohair yarn and a ribbon yarn**, and the blue Knifty Knitter loom. That is the smallest one in the package and probably the one I use the most. It is a great size for dish cloth's and scarves!

** Ha ha, I can hoard pretty yarns as easily as I can scrapbook supplies. Both of these were from my stash.

Note, at this point I am not going to move my loom knit projects from Altered Scrapbooking over to this blog. If you are curious, look to the labels on the right side of that blog and you can click on Loom Knitting, or Knifty Knitter to see those projects.

Monday, September 17, 2012

I finished the stroller blanket last night, and I couldn't be happier with it!

The finished size is approx 23" wide by 26" long, including the crochet border. I did 3 rows of single crochet around the outside edges once it was cast off the loom, then crochet a scallopy border as well. I really think the borders were necessary, although another time I would try to knit a stockinette or seed stitch border right onto the blanket then crochet the scallop edge afterwards. Not on this size loom though, as the blanket is JUST big enough.

I was a little concerned about the pattern stitch when I started. See the big gap in the photo below? Where the unwrapped peg is? I thought it was such a big, loose gap that a baby could get fingers or toes tangled in it.

I'm so glad I continued on though, as in the photo below - you can see how much that gap closes and the knitting gets longer and further from the loom.

Here is a close-up of the corner, showing the 3 rows of single crochet and the crochet border too. I think I will loom knit a little hat to go with this, but even without the hat - this stroller blanket is a gift I am very proud to give. (And I even like the 'wrong' side, now that it is all finished!!)

I will have to wait a little to knit the hat though. One of the reasons I don't needle knit or crochet is because it really hurts my 'tennis elbow'. With adding all that crochet on the border, my arm is quite sore today.

Thanks for stopping by.

**Note, at this point I am not going to move my loom knit projects from Altered Scrapbooking
over to this blog. If you are curious, look to the labels on the right
side of that blog and you can click on Loom Knitting, or Knifty Knitter
to see those projects.

Sunday, September 16, 2012

Yay - I had time to do some loom knitting yesterday!! Am I working on my sweater? Sigh.

Am I working on a blanket for our Grandson, using the wool I chose for him in Arizona last Spring, and hauled all the way back to Canada? Sigh.

A friend of our daughters bought him a BEAUTIFUL baby blanket, that was crochet out of the exact same wool. Since he doesn't need two ... I had all this lovely, soft, blue/green/yellow wool sitting in my stash. Enough to make Ethan dozens of hats, ha ha.

A co-worker of my husband welcomed a baby boy into their family, so I thought I'd use this special, oh-so-soft yarn and whip up a little stroller blanket as our gift to him. Do I follow a pattern and make a swatch so I know how big the blanket will turn out? Sigh.

The yarn is a bulky (5) weight, so I didn't want to struggle with my small gauge baby afghan loom. Instead I pulled out this long green Knifty Knitter loom and all but three pegs are in use. I'm knitting it as a flat panel, not as a double knit piece.

Since I now have a notebook and keep track of such things, I knew to expect a fair amount of shrinkage using this stitch pattern. You can see how much in the photo above -- compare the ends of the loom to the cast-on edge!

I figured if turns out smaller than I intended (mostly due to the stitch pattern shrinkage) - I can always crochet a wide border. Or loom knit a border and attach that to the blanket. I knew I had options, so I wasn't too concerned. But you do have to be aware of this!

You can see in the photo above, I e-wrap 3 pegs, skip one and e-wrap the next 3 - all the way across, around and back across the back side of the loom.

The upside to this stitch pattern? It's FAST. Really fast. You are basically e-wrapping and knitting over the whole thing.

The down side? Other than the shrinkage, the cast-on edge rolls a little. Again, I wasn't concerned as I planned on added a crochet border - even just a single crochet all around to finish it off. The other down side, is that there is an obvious right side - I don't think I like the look of the inside, but - we will see how I feel once the blanket is completed.

When I'm done this, I'm going to make Ethan a hat using 'his' wool. :-)

**Note, at this point I am not going to move my loom knit projects from Altered Scrapbooking
over to this blog. If you are curious, look to the labels on the right
side of that blog and you can click on Loom Knitting, or Knifty Knitter
to see those projects.

Saturday, September 15, 2012

Last winter, I wanted to loom knit something and - even though I had already made myself a couple of split-back neck warmers (will share those another day), two scarfletts, and a couple of cowls - I decided to whip up another cowl. This time I used Homespun yarn - it is SO soft and I love the way it drapes. I don't love that it sometimes splits while knitting off the pegs, but as long as I'm careful and don't go too fast it's OK.

Haha, my plastic model has an unrealistically skinny neck so I had to bunch the cowl up to get the photo. I used the mock crochet stitch from Brenda Myers Lacy Scarflett ... such a fun stitch and I love the scallopy edge it makes.

Because the stitches are quite loose, I simply sewed a chunky button onto the outside of the cowl. That way, when the wind is blowing I can quickly thread the button through any of the stitches to snug it up and keep my neck cozy. If it's warmer out, or I go inside a store -- I can unbutton it just as quickly and let it hang loosely.

This was an easy peasy project, loom knit in the round using the 2nd largest Knifty Knitter loom. I know it wasn't the yellow one (the largest) because my Swing Jacket was still on it. :-} I haven't even looked at that loom in almost 2 weeks - but hopefully later this weekend I can pull it out and get to work. We are having a chore day today.

Thursday, September 13, 2012

Last fall, after knitting many MANY hats, and a few scarves & cowls I decided I was ready for something different. Something to keep my chest warm and something a little dressy.

I am SO proud of this scarf. I made up the pattern by myself and used a lovely soft artisan yarn from Knit & Caboodle in Canmore.

I sure wish I kept a notebook and had this pattern written down in it - but I DO have a note book now so any future projects I loom knit I will be able to make again.

This is a double knit piece, and I started in the center - with increases on each side as I worked my way up.

The ties are also double knit, were done separately and attached afterwards. I added a crochet border across the top, which is kind of loopy and adds a little interest. If I was to make this again though, I would eliminate the loopy look and instead do a simple single crochet row.

This keeps my neck SO nice and warm, and the yarn is really soft and cozy. I can tie it at the back and let the ties hang at my back, or twist them around in the back and bring them around to the front to tie off. That is why I made them as long as I did.

I had some yarn leftover, so added a fringe. That was exactly what the scarf needed - and the extra weight makes the scarf drape and hang very nicely.

Sunday, September 9, 2012

I mentioned the 'Swing Jacket' I was making in my last post, and I thought I'd share a photo of the work in progress:

I'm using 'Fiesta' Homespun yarn and the largest loom from the Knifty Knitter package (43 pegs). I have one side (shown) and the back finished, and have just started on the final side. Still sleeves to go - and I have to decide if I want long sleeves, 3/4 sleeves, or cap sleeves. At this point I'm leaning towards cap sleeves so it would be more like a vest than a sweater. With my hot flashes, sweaters are tooooooooo hot. :-)

See the white tube next to the ball of yarn? Since a lot of the sweater is a simple e-wrap, I took apart a Bic pen, and use the hollow tube to wrap quickly and with a lot less stress on my wrist. Just one of the tips I've learned from the many talented loomers who post tips.

I was hoping to get a lot done on my sweater this weekend, but with our out-of-town guests and lots of visiting family - I never even took it out of the travel bag! Maybe next week ...

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

I just popped over to Kelly Jones' Blog (Kelly Knits) and she has posted a picture of the cover of her new book. It should be released by the end of the year - waa hoo! I have asked her if I can post a picture of the cover here, but until I hear from her I'll have to be happy with just the news about the book.

YAY - Kelly said I could show her cover pic:

Look at that cute bird and ADORABLE lion! I may have to order myself a KISS loom just so I can knit these for the grandkids.

New Loom Knitting Pattern books are few and far between - this is huge news indeed!

I am working on my sweater, the one that has been on my loom for almost a YEAR! It's a 'Swing Jacket' pattern by Denise Layman. I just got bored with working on it, but I decided it was time to get going on it again and now I'm inspired to finish it. Trouble is, we are expecting out of town guests and a busy week ... so I don't know how much I will get done. I will share photos as soon as I can get back to my looming.

**Note, at this point I am not going to move my loom knit projects from Altered Scrapbooking
over to this blog. If you are curious, look to the labels on the right
side of that blog and you can click on Loom Knitting, or Knifty Knitter
to see those projects.

Monday, September 3, 2012

This year our new Grandson will be able to wear the Pumpkin Hat. I bought the yarn to make Olivia a Candy Corn hat this year, but she has decided she does not like hats. So there is really no point in making one, but I think I saw a pattern for a candy corn bag in one of the Loom Knitters Circle past issues. If I can find it I will work that up. Or make one up!

Meanwhile, this is the hat I made for Olivia last year ...

I used the e-wrap stitch throughout, and this lovely shade of orange yarn. Once again, I made the brim twice as long as I needed then brought the cast on edge back up inside the loom. You line up the stitches and put the cast on stitches back on the coordinating peg, so each peg has two loops on it. Knit over and you have a double knit brim that doesn't roll! Check out the many You Tube video's if you want more information on this technique.

Until recently, I didn't keep a notebook of my projects. And my memory just seems to come and go these days, ha ha. So I THINK I used the blue Knifty Knitter Loom (24 pegs), and one strand of the orange yarn. But since it wasn't super bulky, I likely double wrapped the pegs, lifting the two bottom loops over the top one. I also remember I started decreasing the crowns very early on in my hat-making, so they didn't have that 'loom knit hat' look. When I decided I was at the crown of the hat I was working on, I would move every 6th stitch over one peg, then skip that peg on the following rounds. After 3 rounds I would move every 3rd stitch over one peg, continue the last couple of rows then do the gather cast off.

I couldn't remember how to crochet the little spirals, even though we used to make bookworm bookmarks like crazy when my kids were little. Google helped with that, and I made a simple 3 peg i-corn for the stem. Here is Olivia wearing the hat last year:

Saturday, September 1, 2012

I posted this on Altered Scrapbooking, and realized I didn't want to go into stitch detail so I wouldn't bore the paper crafters. That was when I decided it was time to start a loom knitting blog! Especially since my looms have been busy all
summer.

Last weekend I enjoyed the sunshine out on our newly enlarged cabin
deck, with my Knifty Knitter loom and some beautiful artsy yarn from the
yarn shop in Canmore (Knit and Caboodle). You can see our little Cooper watching for squirrels in the photo.

At a meeting I attended in June, a lady was wearing this sideways knit
scarf/cowl/poncho. I loved it and she explained her technique to me. I really liked that it came to a point in the front, without also coming to a point in the back and could be pulled down over the shoulders but the arms would be free. Much easier to wear under a coat without the bulk hanging down your back, but in a meeting - or anywhere - where your neck/shoulders get chilled ... easy to pull down for warmth.

Last month I ordered a fabulous custom made piece from Stephanie at 'Rock, Paper, Scissors, Etc' at Etsy. I have long admired her knit pieces, and when it came - I was surprised to see that it was also a sideways knit item.

Since I've been loom knitting for over a year and have some experience, I decided to attempt one myself - with no pattern. I was SO pleased
with how well it turned out, I tried a second piece with this beautiful turquoise yarn. (
I'll share the first one another day). This one is more scarf/cowl and
less poncho, and in a completely different stitch than my first.

The yarn has a metallic fleck in it, which you can sort of see in the photo below.

Here it is more spread out over the shoulders, and you can get a better look at the stitch pattern.

In the 'Knitting With The Knifty Knitter II' pamphlet (by Provo Craft) there is a pattern for a shawl*. It basically uses the yellow Knifty Knitter Loom (the largest in the package), and you e-wrap 2 pegs, skip one, then e-wrap 2 pegs. I've always liked the look of it - but was a little unsure of how badly the edges would roll when the piece was completely e-wrapped. It would be pretty similar to an entire shawl done on needles using the knit stitch.

I decided to give it a try. I knew I didn't want it to go too far down my shoulders, so I crochet cast on 24 pegs on the purple Knifty Knitter loom. This loom was sold separately than the package, and has more pegs in it for a smaller gauge knit. I used it because my yellow loom has a sweater in progress.

The edges don't really roll! Another time though, I would probably make each side 3 pegs wide, and add a purl stitch in the center. Or maybe alternate K P K with P K P each row on those 3 start/end pegs. At any rate, I was very happy with this stitch pattern and now want to make a lap afghan for myself for the car. With the cooler weather just around the corner, it would come in very handy.

This pattern works up REALLY quickly, since the loom was large and I was pretty much e-wrapping the whole thing. I did notice that there was quite a bit of 'shrinkage' though ... the finished rectangle was just over half the width of the final rows that were still on the loom. So you would want to add at least 30 - 40% to your cast on pegs so your final piece is as wide as you want it to be.

Once my rectangle was as long as I wanted it to be, I added the last cast-on stitch back onto the loom, then worked up the side adding stitches from the side onto the loom until each peg with a loop on it had 2 loops. Sorry I can't explain it better ... maybe one day I'll figure out a diagram, and if so I will edit this post. I had been working with 24 pegs, 18 of them had 2 loops and 6 had one loop (from bringing the bottom edge back onto the loom). I knit over the pegs that had 2 loops so all 24 pegs had one loop. Then I simply cast off. No sewing required - the pieces were joined together with those last two rows!

If you look at the photos, the center front of the scarf is actually the first cast on stitch. Instead of it hanging horizontally, the cast on edge hangs vertically and is caught at the top by the last row of the rectangle.

Amazing how a circle of plastic with some pegs and some gorgeous yarn can make such a lovely accessory.

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About Me

I have had a love affair with paper and scissors as long as I can remember. Card stock, stickers, stamps, ink, dies ... I love it all. I took up Loom Knitting in 2011 and also really enjoy knitting without needles so started a blog to share my creations with others. On a road trip in 2015, I stumbled across Zentangle and was immediately hooked. Instead of combining my Zentangle with my card posts, I have now started a blog for that as well!
I live in Alberta Canada, with my DH and 2 furry kids.
Note, I made the background for my Loom Knitting and Card blogs using papers from digital kits by Gina Cabrera at Digital Design Essentials.